NUREMBERG**

James Vanderbilt, screenwriter on iconic films such as David Fincher's ZODIAC, stages his directorial debut with NUREMBERG, a film about the trial of the infamous Nazi leader Hermann Goering.  

While trying hard to hue close to the historical record, Vanderbilt's script has two fatal flaws - it is patronising and it is far too pleased with itself.  The former manifests in endless passages of ham-fisted exposition, assuming that the viewer knows nothing and it is too stupid to figure it out.  This extends both to the historic events AND their contemporary resonance. 

The latter manifests in clever-clever cuts between lines of dialogue that flatly contradict each other for comic effect.  We get dumb action movie lines like "Welcome to Nuremberg" (insert mike drop), from dumb caricature characters like John Slattery's military prison guard. We get the same character anachronistically referring to two psychiatrists as "mental health professionals".  We get a desperately harrowing courtroom scene of real Holocaust footage shown and then a smash-cut to a cool jazz club and our protagonist flirting with a pretty journalist. Just no.

So this is a tonally jarring, condescending and obvious film containing a central bad performance from Rami Malek as US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelly. Why might it still be worth your time? A star each for Russell Crowe and Leo Woodall as Goering and Sergeant Howie Triest respectively. Crowe is absolutely magnificent as Goering - capturing his slippery charm, bonhomie, narcissism and at core his complete fanaticism.  It's a shame such a performance - Crowe's best in years - is wasted on this film.  And kudos to Leo Woodall, who recently impressed as the lead actor in TUNER.  As Howie, Woodall is the very moral and emotional heart of this film, far moreso than Malek's gurning shrink. Otherwise Shannon and poor Richard E Grant are mediocre in roles ill-written and under-serving their real life counterparts.

NUREMBERG is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 148 minutes. It played Toronto and San Sebastian. It was released in the USA last Friday and in the UK next Friday.

TUNER**** - BFI London Film Festival 2025 - Surprise Film

Documentarian Daniel Roher, who won an Oscar for NAVALNY, returns to our screens with his first fiction feature.  Co-written with Robert Ramsay (INTOLERABLE CRUELTY), the movie is about a young piano tuner called Niki who suffers from an acute sensitivity to sound that ended his career as a virtuoso concert pianist. He has to wear headphones to muffle sound, but his pitch-perfect musical sense makes him an amazing piano tuner, and by a twist of fate, also an amazing safe-cracker. 

The plot mechanics are thrown into gear when Niki's beloved and aged mentor Harry suffers a heart attack and accumulates massive medical bills. Niki slips into helping a security company pilfer from their clients. This also ends up implicating his new girlfriend, a talented pianist and composer called Ruthie, through a coincidental plot device that really brought me out of this otherwise excellent film.

There's a lot to love here.  Daniel Roher knows how to cut a brisk and exciting montage.  The new music by Marius de Vries is beautiful and the way in which it is used reminded me of another excellent LFF film, WHIPLASH.  The music is complemented by the the sound design, which both depicts the movie's tension and Niki's crippling condition.  It was no surprise to discover that the sound design was by Johnnie Burns, whose work in THE ZONE OF INTEREST was some of the most stunning sound work I have ever heard.  

Kudos to the co-writers for creating a film that is often very funny but also emotional and thrilling. And kudos to the entire cast. The White Lotus' Leo Woodall has starred in feature films before, but it feels as though his performance as Niki will be his breakout role.  He has to essay everything from nonchalance to deep hurt to peril and does so beautifully.  Dustin Hoffman is absolutely hilarious and charismatic in an extended cameo as Niki's mentor Harry.  And the two leading ladies, Havana Rose Liu (LURKER) and Tovah Feldshuh do their best with smaller but still important roles.  

This film is not without its flaws, but it shows real flair, confidence and foregrounds some phenomenal performances. I am surprised that it does not yet have a commercial release date.

TUNER has a running time of 109 minutes. It played Telluride, Toronto and London.

BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY****

First the irritating stuff.  Why oh why must London-set dramadies always be set among the 1 percent? Because let's be clear, most newly widowed mothers don't go back to work for a rebrand. They go back to work because they are financially insecure.  Most of them don't live in lavish picture-perfect Hampstead houses and have two kids in private school.  Most can't afford a full-time nanny. And most can't just waltz back into the same job they had a decade prior.

Second irritating point.  Renee Zellwegger.  The whole awkward tampon up the arse walk. The gurning.  The ditziness that is impervious to ageing and wisdom. The fact that she seems to have an endless stream of handsome men declare their underlying love for her.

Okay so that's two pretty major problems with this film.  BUT I still enjoyed it!  Why? Because author and screenwriter Helen Fielding has something moving and hopeful to say about grieving a loved one and about emotional growth.  We see Bridget as a widow navigate grief with her two small children, have a passionate summer fling with a hot younger man (The White Lotus' Leo Woodall) and then form a more mature attachment with her son's teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor).  I believed in her grief, her joy, her contentment. Because Renee Zellwegger is actually a good actress when given something meaningful to do.  

And what of the emotional growth? Well that's all on the part of Hugh Grant's delicious rake Daniel, who comes to the realisation that he ought to forge a relationship with his teenage son. He has all the best lines and provides all of the film's comedy. Oh, except for a really superb cameo from Isla Fisher. Renee's prat falling does NOT count. (Shirley Henderson and the other best mates are all sadly underused.)

BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY has a running time of 124 minutes and is rated R. It is in cinemas in the UK and on Peacock in the USA.